English Open 2026: Brentwood Braces for Home Nations Showdown as Allen Steps Aside
A Title to Defend, But No Defender
There is something almost poetic about the way snooker's Home Nations Series refuses to stand still. One tournament ends — the British Open wrapping up in Cheltenham on Sunday — and barely twenty-four hours later, the circuit moves on, unpacked and ready, to the Brentwood Centre in Essex. The 2026 English Open begins on Monday, September 7th, and runs through to the final on Sunday, September 13th. Same venue as last year, and the year before that. The fifth consecutive staging at Brentwood, in fact. Some things, at least, offer a little continuity.
What the draw cannot offer this year is the sight of Mark Allen attempting to retain the trophy he won so convincingly in 2025, edging out Zhou Yuelong in what was a thoroughly absorbing final. The Northern Irishman has withdrawn from the tournament, leaving the Steve Davis Trophy — that distinctive piece of silverware named in honour of snooker's original Romford boy — available to a fresh claimant. It is a shame. Allen at his best, potting with that slightly aggressive, front-foot energy of his, is one of the game's more compelling sights. Brentwood will have to make do without him.
A Field Full of Former Champions
It rarely takes long for the draw to throw up something worth talking about, and the 2026 English Open is no different. Judd Trump, a two-time champion at this event, opens his campaign against Jordan Brown — a match-up that looks straightforward on paper but rarely feels that simple when Brown, a former world number one, gets his safety game working. Mark Selby, another two-time winner, faces Ricky Walden in the first round; Walden is the sort of opponent who will probe every weakness in Selby's armour across the best-of-seven format. Neither match is a foregone conclusion.
Neil Robertson, who claimed the English Open title as recently as 2024, begins against Luo Zetao. Robertson arrives in Brentwood with that quiet, contained intensity he carries into every ranking event — the sense that he is always one good session away from reminding everyone exactly why he won the World Championship in 2010. And Stuart Bingham, the local hero who lifted this very trophy in 2018, is also in the field, representing the kind of sentimental storyline that the Home Nations Series seems to produce every year.
Notably absent, alongside Allen, is Ronnie O'Sullivan. The seven-time world champion's sole Home Nations success came at this very event in 2017, and his withdrawal leaves the draw without one of its most unpredictable elements. Whether that makes the title race easier to call or simply more open is a question the next seven days will answer.
The World Champion Enters the Fray
Keep an eye, too, on Wu Yize. The reigning world champion — still carrying that particular glow of a player who has peaked at exactly the right moment — takes on Gao Yang in the opening round. Wu's world title triumph announced him as the sport's next generational talent, and every tournament he enters now carries the weight of expectation that comes with wearing that crown. How he handles that pressure, across a week of best-of-seven frames in front of an Essex crowd that loves a bit of theatre, will be instructive.
Format, Prize Money and How to Watch
The format follows the established Home Nations template. Matches from the first round through to the last 16 are played over the best of seven frames, before the quarter-finals and semi-finals step up to 11, and the final stretches out to a best of 17 — long enough for momentum to shift, form to fluctuate, and the occasional miracle to happen.
The prize fund sits at a total of £550,400, with the winner banking £100,000 and the runner-up taking home £45,000. There is also a £5,000 bonus on offer for the highest break of the tournament, which always adds a little extra incentive for players to go for glory rather than safety late in a frame. The full breakdown runs from £1,000 for last-96 losers up through the ranks — meaningful money at every stage of the draw.
A qualifying phase was held in Leicester back in July, meaning players ranked outside the top 32 had to earn their place in Brentwood the hard way. The top 32 seeds enter at the last-64 stage, which marks the beginning of the tournament proper this week.
The English Open has been part of the Home Nations Series since 2016, sitting alongside the Scottish Open, Welsh Open, and Northern Ireland Open as one of the circuit's most distinctive mini-campaigns. Ten editions in, it has produced moments of genuine drama — and given the cast assembled at the Brentwood Centre this week, the 2026 version looks ready to add a few more.
